The department of energy has awarded a short-term R20-million contract to a company to act as transaction advisor to assess the state of readiness for the country’s nuclear build programme.

Details of the appointment of Mahlako a Phahla Investments were released by the department this morning and comes just weeks ahead of the end-September deadline to get requests for proposals for the controversial energy overhaul out to potential vendors in the market.

The company, its website states, operates in the electrical, energy, mining, financial, Infrastructure and telecoms sectors and is owned by two chartered accountants, Makole Mupita and Meta Maponya. The company declined to comment.

Cabinet approved the nuclear programme in December last year and the government has repeatedly said it would only make a final decision on whether to proceed with the multi-billion deal after a thorough cost analysis.

Meanwhile today’s M&G revealed that while there is to date no decision on the nuclear deal, at least one company has pipped everyone to the post by scoring a deal for a “Nuclear Build Programme Management System”.
The R171-million contract was awarded to Silver Lake Trading 149 trading as Empire Technology. It is owned by Shantan Reddy, the son of politically connected Druban property and power mogul, Vivian Reddy.